1. Take a look at a map of Canada. Look at the huge province of Ontario bordering Hudson Bay to the north and the USA to the south. In outline it resembles a huge head with its nose sticking into the Hudson Bay and its neck rooted in the Great Lakes. Now look further north and west to the Yukon territory. Huge again. A setting easily accommodating for a "lost city" – a city cut off from the rest of the continent, a Shangri-La in the remote Canadian wilderness.

2. Review your geography. And review the form of a mystery: something is hidden in the text, meaning will emerge with time if you are keen and patient and pay attention to the detective. There may be events and scenes that would prompt "trigger warnings" on television.

3. Review the ingredients for a modern detective/mystery novel: a puzzle to be solved (we don't want too many surprises or some deus ex machina ending, but rather clues dropped along the way that will give us that "of course" experience at the end); an intelligent protagonist (strong resourceful woman) matched against an antagonist of comparable skill and tenacity; a fast paced race against time; a cast of interesting and believable characters interacting in interesting human ways with loyalty, jealousy, betrayal, and love; the use of forensic science to help solve the puzzles; some religious mumbo-jumbo to frighten the reader with suggestions of a deeply puzzling universe possibly inhabited by non-natural entities. A hint of cannibalism and savages roaming the forests around the town thrown in for extra terror and excitement.

4. Seek out a comfortable chair of sofa. If you have a seat belt available, attached it securely.

READ

Ready? Strapped in? Go. Open to page one and begin reading. If you are lucky have someone bring you food and drink as required for you will want to stay until the end, will not want to interrupt your reading for such trivialities. Depending on your reading speed you should emerge in three or four hours filled with the excitement and awe of having spent those hours with a fully human, professional Detective, Casey Duncan, who herself is hiding a deep secret while involved in the biggest and weirdest murder case in recent times.

Place names are not too important; yet you need a Canadian map to get a sense of the vastness and remoteness of the setting. Characters are complete. Action is described in great detail with skill. Setting is important. The uncivilized forests are objective correlatives for the undiscovered parts of the human mind. The book opens in a psychiatrist's office as Casey is trying to cope with her guilt.

Casey Duncan (Butler) is a homicide detective with a secret: when she was in college, she killed a man. She was never caught, but he was the grandson of a mobster and she knows that someday this crime will catch up to her. Casey's best friend, Diana, is on the run from a violent, abusive ex-husband. When Diana's husband finds her and assaults her, and then Casey herself is attacked shortly after, Casey knows it's time for the two of them to disappear again.

Diana has heard of a town made for people like her, a town that takes in people on the run who want to shed their old lives. This is the lost city tucked away in the forest somewhere up north in Canada. You must apply to live in Rockton and if you're accepted, it means walking away entirely from your old life, and living off the grid in the wilds of Canada: no cell phones, no Internet, no mail, no computers, very little electricity, and no way of getting in or out without the town council's approval. As a murderer, Casey isn't a good candidate, but she has something they want: She's a homicide detective, and Rockton has just had its first real murder. She and Diana are in. However, soon after arriving, Casey realizes that the identity of a murderer isn't the only secret Rockton is hiding--in fact, she starts to wonder if she and Diana might be in even more danger in Rockton than they were in their old lives.

Eric Dalton is the sheriff in the town of Rockton and he is as secretive and hidden as is the town. What secrets is the sheriff hiding? Why does he spend so much time looking out at the forest surrounding the town? "Lost", "hidden", "secret" are good terms for describing this novel, which was published initially as an e-serial and now as a novel.

AUTHOR

Kelley Armstrong (as described by goodreads): "has been telling stories since before she could write. Her earliest written efforts were disastrous. If asked for a story about girls and dolls, hers would invariably feature undead girls and evil dolls, much to her teachers' dismay. All efforts to make her produce "normal" stories failed.

Today, she continues to spin tales of ghosts and demons and werewolves, while safely locked away in her basement writing dungeon. She's the author of the NYT-bestselling "Women of the Otherworld" paranormal suspense series and "Darkest Powers" young adult urban fantasy trilogy, as well as the Nadia Stafford crime series. Armstrong lives in southwestern Ontario with her husband, kids and far too many pets."

ENJOY

I will say no more about plot. You have to read it. If you are a fan of detective stories you will want to read City of the Lost. If you are a fan of good fiction you will want to read City of the Lost. Like weird and creepy characters, settings and secrets? You will like City of the Lost.

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